The Ministry of Power has approved the State Government’s proposal for financial assistance under Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (R-APDRP) to the Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU).
The CESU is in the process of finalising project reports for upgradation and strengthening of distribution networks in 12 major towns in its area of operation.
The State Government will sign a quadripartite agreement with the Ministry of Power, Power Finance Corporation and CESU for release of funds from the Centre, CESU CEO Sudarsan Nayak told this paper.
The R-APDRP scheme aims at developing baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting and auditing, renovation and modernisation sub-transmission system (11 kv level and below), load bifurcation, feeder separation, aerial bunching of conductors in dense areas and replacement of electromagnetic energy meters with tamper proof electronics meters. The Centre has approved project proposal worth about Rs 600 crore under R-APDRP to be implemented in two phases. The phase-I programme is estimated to cost Rs186 crore while the projects sanctioned for the second phase is worth Rs 410 crore.
Meanwhile, CESU has prepared base-line data including the number of consumers, types of consumers, consumption pattern, GIS mapping and input and output management of power of 12 urban centres including Cuttack and Bhubaneswar as required under R-APDRP guidelines, Nayak said.
The other urban centres which will benefit under the scheme include Angul, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Paradip, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri.
Initially, the Power Ministry agreed to cover the twin city of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar under R-APDRP. After much cajoling, the Centre agreed to extend the benefit to 10 other towns.
The Central assistance will come as a loan for the phase-I which includes preparation of base line data and IT applications for energy accounting and auditing and IT-based services.
The loan will be converted into grant after establishment of the required base-line data system within a stipulated time and duly verified by third party independent evaluation agency (TPIEA).The Centre will provide up to 25 per cent loan for the second phase programme which includes strengthening of distribution networks.
The entire loan from the Centre will be routed through Power Finance Corporation (PFC). The counterpart funding will be done by PFC as per its prevailing policy, official sources said.